Aerobic Cleavage of Alkenes and Alkynes into Carbonyl and Carboxyl Compounds

This review provides an overview of the recent developments on the oxygen-mediated cleavage of olefins and acetylene derivatives to provide carbonyl and carboxylic compounds. A number of photo, organo, and metal catalysts have been reviewed with an emphasis on those exhibiting superior performance. For this purpose, crucial aspects such as pressure, substrate scope, product selectivity for the target aldehydes, ketones, or carboxylic acids, catalyst amount, and recyclability are discussed. Although many improvements are required to match the results provided by conventional oxidants, aerobic cleavage of such unsaturated hydrocarbons is a very promising field in progress on account of the significant achievements extracted from the recent literature. Several postulated mechanisms are also provided to gain insight into the role of the catalysts and the incorporation of oxygen atoms into the products.